Akihabara Square Interactive Image

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Rembrandt, a Dutch painter, created this work in a series of paintings about the senses. It was completed in either 1624 or 1625 when Rembrandt was just eighteen years old. Rembrandt is one of the key figures of the period known as the Dutch Golden Age and some of his other notable works are Belshazzar's Feast, The Night Watch, and the Hundred Guilder Print.

This painting is titled "Stone Operation", as mentioned in the artist profile above it is a Rembrandt work from 1624-25 in a series about the senses. It depicts a patient wincing in pain as a doctor attends to his head with a scalpel. There are a number of specific elements and points in the painting that I will relate to haptics/tactility. I selected this work because I was reminded by it of the quote "Modalities of touch provide a framework of proximity, openness and intersubjectivity, a space 'between us'"(Pau Obrador-Pons).

Contextual significance: The Dutch Golden Age (a period of artists which Rembrandt is regarded as an integral member of) was largely preoccupied with documenting the emotions and senses derived from pleasure and pain. Rembrandt specifically tasked himself with documenting the senses in his work. This is contextually connected to this week's content as tactility and haptics are both interconnected with the sense of touch that Rembrandt demonstrates. Subject significance: What the painting depicts is closely related to haptics. The sense of pain that the patient has from the touch of the scalpel is in a way haptic feedback. It aligns with and explores our class' examination of what is felt. Connection to the readings: Desiderio and Diletto discuss the frustration within the sensation of toucch with I think is aptly shown in the pain response that this patienty has. Also, I was stuck by Assaf's analysis of how certain theologists and moralists viewed manual labor as a remedy to redeem sins. Manual labor is a tactile process and I think what these thinkers meant was endurance of struggle and the sensation of pain is a correction of the self. In that way this experience of pain in surgery is a remedy to sin under the line of reasoning that Assaf describes.

The patient's hand is clenched with fingernails digging into the palm. This highlights the pain that he is experiencing from the surgery being performed and is also a device to resonate with the observer/audience. Everyone understands the tactile feeling of tightening a hand into a fist and the sensation of the nails pressing into the hands.

The patient's jaw is also clenched as a response to pain. This is another facet of the painting that an audience/observer is able to relate to. It is a sensation that all are familiar with and can recall, it elicited a response from me as I too clenched my jaw when I viewed it to understand the experience again. This painting is intriguing as it draws many tactile responses from what it depicts.

The paramount demonstration of haptics/tactility in this painting is the surgery itself. I am reminded of the pain recounted in Teresa of Avila, The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus. This pain and the touch of the scalpel to the head is the primary force at the center of this painting. Pain is characterized in tactile ways, like sharp for example. The surgery is a haptic experience as it engages the body through the vehicle of a physical sensation of pain.

Tangential to the broader themes of this object annotation but I find it interesting that the only source of light is the candle that the doctor's assistant holds. The way the light emanates casts a shadow that accentuates the tension and pain of the clenched fist.